فصلنامه پژوهش در برنامه ریزی درسی
پیاپی 26 (تابستان 1389)

The purpose of the study was to explore the relationship between teacher instruction procedure and job burnout. The participants in this study were 140 teachers (males=87,females=53) at secondary schools in Garmsar. Two instruments were used to collect data. The teacher's instruction procedure was measured by the use of a researcher made questionnaire (with three dimensions of instruction as direct, semi‐direct and indirect). The job burnout (namely: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and decreased professional efficacy) was measured by the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI). The data were analyzed using the Pearson product‐moment correlation technique, Chi‐Square test and regression. The major findings were as follows: 1) A sign icant relationship between total teacher's nstruction procedure and total burnout. 2) A positive relationship between teacher's direct instruction procedure and job burnout. 3) A Negative relationship between teacher's indirect instruction procedure and job burnout. 4) No significant relationship between teacher's semi‐direct instruction procedure and job burnout. 5) A positive relationship was found between teacher's direct instruction procedure with each three dimensions of job burnout (Emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and reduced personal accomplishment). 6) A sign icantly negative relationship was found separate between teacher's direct instruction with each dimension of job burnout. 7) There was no relationship between teacher's semi‐direct instruction procedure with each three dimensions of job burnout.

This paper focused on the notion of test score pollution and elaborated on different sources of test score pollution. These sources were test preparation, situational factors, contextual factors, disproportional importance attached to tests by policy makers, editorialists and other commentators based on misconceptions about the role of tests or misinterpretationsand over‐interpretation of the meaning of test scores. Then, it provided some suggestions to reduce the problem with interpretation and unwise use of test results. The recommendations offered in this paper expressed the concern to employ a democratic approach to testing and use of multiple‐indicators rather than a single one. It recommended using a multi‐level view of assessment based on integration of quantitative and qualitative assessment procedures to minimize the effects of test score pollution.

This study aims at investigating whether the gender of EFL learners in conversational interactions influences the incidence and effectiveness of one salient type of feedback, namely, recasts. Forty EFL students who were all English teaching majors taking English laboratory classes at Islamic Azad University, Najafabad branch completed the interactional tasks with both male and female interlocutors. Their language production was analyzed for the use and provision of recasts empirically demonstrated to facilitate foreign language learning. The study investigated whether (1) interactions differ according to the group type (matched vs. mixed), (2) males and females interact differently in mixed gender groups, and (3) learners interact differently according to their interlocutor's gender. The results of statistical analysis indicate that the gender composition of the groups influenced the occurrence of recasts: there were more recasts in mixed‐gender than matched‐gender groups, and participants provided interlocutors of different gender with more recasts than interlocutors of the same gender, but this difference depends highly on the type of task the participants are engaged in. Thus, the gender of both learners and their interlocutors can influence the use and provision of recasts and should be considered in foreign language research and teaching.

The experiment undertaken in this study focused on testing the hypothesis that the context or activity through which language learning takes place and specific FL forms that learners are expected to learn may be possible causes of variation in the learner's performance. This study, thus, investigated the possible causes of variation in intermodal transfer, a process which is believed to be partly responsible for foreign language learning (FLL). An almost linguistically homogenous sample of sixty subjects was randomly selected out of 1500 newly accepted university students in Islamic Azad University‐Shahrekord Branch. The subjects were chosen from a variety of majors such as Persian Literature, Sociology, History, Public Administration, Educational Administration, Preschool Education, Nursing, Civil Engineering, Geography, and General sciences. They were assigned to two groups, each receiving exposure to the English language forms in focus through a different context: Group A through conversational activities and group B through writing activities. The language elements studied were eight English forms non‐existent in the learner's L1 (Persian). The results supported the hypothesis that knowledge of FL forms not present in L1 learned through writing contexts/activities is more readily transferable to other contexts than the same knowledge learned through conversational contexts/activities. The possible causes of such variation in the learner's performances were discussed along with implications of the findings for FLL studies and EFL pedagogical purposes.

The present study aimed to investigate the interaction between four modes of rhetorical discourse and the type of rating procedure used for assessing the speaking ability of Iranian EFL learners. A corpus including the recorded speech of 32 advanced EFL learners was subjected to two methods of rating and also analysed with respect to four rhetorical discourse representations of narration, explanation, description, and argumentation. Four competent raters rated the recorded speech once based on a holistic set of criteria and also according to an analytic basis (ACTFL). The obtained data was then subjected to a two‐way ANOVA. The results indicated the differential performances of the candidates, which was argued to be attributable to the very nature of the four rhetorical modes of spoken discourse in that each mode of discourse demands certain linguistic structures and a number of syntactic, semantic, pragmatic, or discoursal formulations.

This study focused on evaluating the textbooks of “Translation of Simple Texts” currently used in the Iranian universities at the undergraduate English translation program. In so doing, 10 experienced translation teachers were asked to evaluate two textbooks developed and frequently used for the abovementioned course employing the framework proposed by Sha􀏐iei (2007). Based on the findings and results of the research instrument described in terms of the frequency and percentage of the participants’ responses on the Likert scale, it was concluded that generally speaking, the degree of teacher’s disagreement on the use of the two coursebooks is more than that of agreement.

This study was intended to investigate the application and presentation of dispreferred seconds in English textbooks taught at Iran's high school prep centers referred to as an EFL setting. Since dispreferred seconds normally occur in conversations, dialogs and the respective exercises were the target of this investigation. The texts were examined carefully to see if dispreferred seconds were effectively introduced in them. In other words, the goal was to find out if dispreferred seconds have been presented in the texts in the same way as they are used by native speakers. The data were analyzed by determining the total number of disprefered seconds, the number of the unmarked as well as the marked ones plus their percentage.The findings revealed that the presentation of different types of dispreferred seconds were proved inefficient based on the principles and compared to the way they are used by native speakers.This work was hoped to detect the inappropriate materials based on this research and help improve syllabus design by taking the pragmatic principles into consideration and incorporating sociocultural aspects of competence as a part of communicative competence into the teaching materials.

The present experimental study aimed to explore learners’ attitudes towards using translation strategies and the effect of two variables of individual differences,risk taking and tolerance of ambiguity, on translation strategy use. The participants of the study were 120 EFL learners homogenized through Oxford Placement Test. They received three questionnaires of translation strategy use, risk‐taking and ambiguity tolerance. All questionnaires were in Likert‐scale and their internal consistency was calculated using Cronbach’s alpha. By analysis of Chi‐square (goodness of fit), the attitudes of learners towards using translation strategies were measured. In order to determine the effect of risk taking and ambiguity tolerance on translation strategy use, two independent samples ttest were run. The findings show that participants had positive attitude toward using translation strategies. The results also show negative effect of risk‐taking on translation strategy use. In other words, risk‐averse learners were found to use translation strategies more than risk‐takers. Findings of the study on the effect of ambiguity tolerance on translation strategy use show that this individual characteristic had no effect on learner’s translation strategy use in EFL learning.

This study compares the vocabulary used in Iranian EFL secondary and high school textbooks with the 􀏐irst three 1000 high frequency word lists (1000, 2000, 3000) from the British National Corpus (BNC). The BNC first three word lists consist of 3000 word families which form the basis of 16454 word types. Using BNC lists and Nation’s Range Program, the findings of this study show that while most of the words used in these textbooks are among the words most frequent used, they just make up 10% of the total words in the BNC 􀏐irst three 1000 high frequency word lists. This indicates that there is a wide gap between the size of the vocabulary knowledge presented in these textbooks and an ideal vocabulary knowledge (3000 word families) necessary for minimal reading comprehension. The results of this study help course designers and materials developers to reconsider the vocabulary selection in the preparation of language teaching texts and materials. They also inform teachers of the shortcomings in the textbooks and help them to try to find ways to bridge the gap.

Wexler and Manzini (1987) proposed an asymmetry hypothesis called the Subset‐ Superset Directionality Hypothesis which is applicable to the core of language. This study is an attempt to figure out whether the hypothesis is applicable to the periphery of language, and also to make a comparison between generativists view and that of contrasitivists in this regard. To accomplish this goal, 90 adult, female, Persian speaking learners of English as a foreign language were chosen from among the students at the Iran Language Institute. Based on their performance on Oxford Placement Test, they were divided into three groups at different levels of L2 pro􀏐iciency, namely, low, mid, and high. The data were collected through conducting a vocabulary test (a 90‐item translation‐task) which contained 40 pairs of vocabulary; one for English as the superset and the other for Persian as the superset. To investigate the data, two one‐way ANOVAs and three related t‐ tests were computed. The data analysis indicated that language learning is easier when foreign language (in this case, English) is superset and the first language (in this case, Persian) is subset; and this is exactly what the Subset‐ Superset Directionality Hypothesis claims. So, according to the results, language learning patterns can be applicable to the periphery of language as well as the core. Moreover, Brown’s (1987) hierarchy of difficulty is rejected in this regard, but not that of Krzeszowski (1990).

This study is a truly experimental quantitative research with repeated measures design investigating the true nature of L2 grammatical proficiency by focusing on its component parts. It examines the performance of 60 female EFL learners at two levels of proficiency (i.e. High‐ and Low‐Intermediate) using two types of computerized Grammaticality Judgement Tasks in different orders (i.e. explicit and implicit written GJ tasks) per each participant at a one week interval for two weeks to determine the extent to which L2 learner's performance is affected by different independent variables chosen and manipulated out of many others that exist (i.e. explicit and implicit knowledge of WH‐movement) as well as the effect of proficiency level on the dependent variable (i.e. L2 participants’ performance on the two GJ tasks) while focusing on subjacency.The null hypothesis is that no relationship exists between the explicitness or implicitness of a GJ task and the EFL participants’ performance on WH‐questions. Results from analyzing the elicited measurement data indicate that the performance scores of the two proficiency groups in the two GJ tasks did not differ significantly, and, as a result, the null hypothesis was not rejected.

The purpose of this study explained the motive for scholastic achievement of Esfahan University students in terms of their study styles viewed as behavior. To achieve the aims of the study, using randomized sampling technique, out of 13691 Esfahan University students in seven faculties, a statistical sample of 373 students was prepared. To collect the data for the study classified as one of correlation, questionnaires for study styles (with 30 question items and Chronbach α of 0.44‐ 0.740) and motive for scholastic achievement (with 49 question items and Chronbach α of 0.75) were prepared. The data from the questionnaires were analyzed using Pearson Correlation and Regression coefficients. The results indicated that there was a positive significant relation between the study styles and the scholastic achievement motive. Further, the evidence from the regression also indicated that out of the study styles, meta‐cognitive consciousness 19.80, scholastic self‐confidence 19.30 and superficial technique 16.70 explain the scholastic achievement motive and the ability to make signi􀏐icant predictions: p<0.05 or p<0.01, whereas strategic and in‐depth approaches predict the scholastic achievement motive.

The present study aimed to examine the possible relationship between English morphological knowledge as a powerful vocabulary learning strategy and English vocabulary knowledge of Iranian pre‐university students. The study was conducted on 70 Iranian pre‐university students aged 18‐19. Morphological knowledge and vocabulary size of Iranian pre_university students were assessed through using Nation’s 2,000‐word level Vocabulary Test (VLT) and Morphological Knowledge Test which evaluated students’ knowledge of inflection, derivation and compounding. Then the results were correlated in order to find out whether morphological knowledge plays any role in vocabulary size of Iranian pre‐university students. The results showed that there is a significant relationship between the students’ overall morphological knowledge and their vocabulary knowledge. In addition, the results underscored the potential importance of different aspects of morphological knowledge for increasing vocabulary knowledge. Students’ ideas regarding the tests were also investigated through using a questionnaire. The findings of this study led to the suggestions to improve Iranian pre_university student's English learning in general and their vocabulary size in particular through using morphological Knowledge as a very useful vocabulary learning strategy.

The present study aims to investigate the relationship between breadth of vocabulary knowledge, lexical inferencing strategy use and success in reading comprehension. The participants of this study were fifty graduate students, majoring in teaching English at the universities of Najaf Abad and khorasgan who had reached the lexical threshold level for reading comprehension, i.e., 3,000 word families or better as was measured by Schmitt (2001) Vocabulary Level Test. To collect the relevant data, participants were asked to take part in two language tests, Schmitt's (2001) Vocabulary Level Test, and a test of reading comprehension and one session interview for knowing what types of lexical inferencing strategies were commonly used by learners. Using multivariate analyses, the study examined the relationship between breadth of vocabulary knowledge, lexical inferencing strategy use and reading comprehension success. The results indicated that (1) there were a signi􀏐icant relationship between the scores of reading comprehension and breadth of vocabulary knowledge and (2) breadth of vocabulary knowledge and lexical inferencing strategies were correlated (3) encountering unknown words many of the learners use different types of strategies to find the meaning. The results from this study call for a recognition of the importance of improving vocabulary knowledge for EFL learners, teachers, test designers and material developers.